


Since Before I Know You

by winterune



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Childhood, F/M, Family, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22954549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterune/pseuds/winterune
Summary: What if Ren and Ann had met briefly when they were children?Set in a childhood AU, Ren was playing in an arcade game center when he noticed a certain girl with natural blond hair and bright blue eyes playing by herself.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Takamaki Ann, Kurusu Akira/Takamaki Ann, Persona 5 Protagonist/Takamaki Ann
Comments: 12
Kudos: 77





	Since Before I Know You

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt on writing a ShuAnn fic, and also an attempt to get back on writing Persona 5. This story is set in a childhood AU headcanon I have had in my head for a while now that I have yet to write - which I will write one day, hopefully, but seeing my time management, I wonder if I'll be able to finish a multichapter fic. Still, I will try, because I really want to write it down and share it :) 
> 
> Having said that, I really enjoyed writing this, so I hope you will enjoy reading it too ^^ Thank you!

It was a rare summer day when he was 10, when he had no cram school and his father was away on some business trip. In the late morning when he went to the kitchen to grab something to drink, his mother was still there, fixing breakfast. She glanced at him from the stove where she was stirring some pot of miso soup and threw him a bright smile.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” she said.

Ren mumbled a _g’morning_ before taking a seat by the counter and poured himself a glass of water. Through bleary eyes, he noticed there were two sets of steaming white rice in front of him, with some grilled fish and rolled scrambled eggs. There were also empty bowls for the soup his mother was cooking.

Absently, Ren grabbed his chopsticks and picked one scrambled egg to chew on.

His mother glanced at him over her shoulder again. “Simple breakfast since dad’s not here,” she said. Ren mumbled something incoherent with a small nod of his head. He watched his mother turn the stove off and ladle out the soup into the waiting empty bowls. 

Afterwards, she joined him on his other side and the two of them held their hands in prayer. “Thank you for the food,” he murmured before digging into his meal.

“Since dad’s not here,” his mother began, “do you want to go somewhere today?”

Ren glanced up at her. “Where?” he asked, scooping some rice into his mouth with his chopsticks.

“The park, maybe?” she offered. “Or…how about the arcade?”

Ren’s ears pricked at that.

“Didn’t you want to go there with your friends?”

He did, but his father hadn’t allowed him, even though his cram school wouldn’t have started until the afternoon, because Ren should be using that time to study instead of wasting it by playing around.

Ren looked up at his mother and nodded enthusiastically—until the image of him playing a shooting game by himself while his mother stood on the sidelines cheering him on interrupted his thoughts.

The enthusiasm left him as he asked, “You don’t mind?”

“Why would I mind?”

Ren shrugged. “Because…you’d be bored. And it wouldn’t be fun anyway just playing by myself.”

But his mother just grinned. “Who says you’re playing by yourself?”

*******

It had never occurred to him that his mother would be playing a game with him, let alone an arcade game. All the times he had spent with his mother usually consisted of either strolling in the park or reading a book. Quiet activities. But now here they were, an hour or so later, in a local arcade before one of the shooting games, and for once, he saw a rare smile on his mother’s face.

“I haven’t played one of these games for so long,” his mother said.

That managed to grab his attention. “Did you play arcade games when you were a kid?” Ren asked, because the image of his mother’s younger self in a game center with her friends was beyond his imagination. She had never talked much about her childhood. All Ren knew of his mother was the big traditional house she had lived in and being raised as a lady of a prestigious family. Her past-time activities had included reading a book, flower arrangements, and tea ceremonies. 

“Sometimes,” his mother said, and with a glance and a grin, she added, “when your grandfather wasn’t looking.”

Ren found himself grinning at that. This was also his first time playing an arcade game, and he might have had reservations playing one with his mother, but it turned out she was a good and fun competitor. Ren had to admit it. He never would have thought his own mother, someone he had only ever seen arranging flowers or doing charity works, even knew how to play video games.

As it was summer vacation, even on the weekdays, the arcade was packed with people. By noon, it had only gotten more crowded. They were playing one of the basketball ones when Ren’s mother said she was getting tired. She’d look for a seat somewhere, but if Ren still wanted to play, then he should continue playing. However, the place was getting a little too cramped and his stomach was growling again, so Ren told his mother that this would be his last game and asked if they could find something to eat. 

His mother complied, but on their way out, something caught their interest—a lone girl by the crane games. If it were any other person, they would probably have blended in with the background, but even if Ren had tried, he probably still wouldn’t have been able to ignore her. Because the girl had blond hair that looked natural and a face that appeared foreign. She was clearly not Japanese, and in a small town such as this, that would certainly draw attention, though she seemed completely oblivious to it.

The girl, in a white t-shirt and pink skirt, was playing one of the crane games. Ren paused just in time to see the claw machine picking up some kind of figurine and it was already halfway up when the figurine dropped back into the pile.

The girl huffed in irritation, hands on her hip, before fishing a coin from some pocket in her skirt and inserting it into the machine. She moved the claw again, reached down, but this time, she failed to even grab the toy. Another irritated click of her tongue and from her reflection in the machine’s glass, Ren could see the scowl set deep on her face.

That was when Ren noticed the young woman standing slightly behind her, with dark hair tied to a ponytail and a simple set of dark blue clothes. Her back slightly bowed by the waist, Ren could just make out her murmur, “Ann-sama, please, your grandfather waits for you. Let us go.” The woman’s words surprised Ren because she had spoken to the girl in perfect Japanese, which meant the girl also understood Japanese.

Ren’s guess was right, because when the girl whipped her head toward the woman, the word she uttered was in perfect, fluent Japanese. “But—” And Ren was quite amazed. It was rare to see a foreigner who could speak the language so well. 

“And you are not the only one who wishes to play the game, Ann-sama,” the young woman added quietly.

The girl could see that, now that she wasn’t fully focused on the game machine. More people had gathered around her. Her eyes swept through her crowd of spectators, before quietly resting on him. A heartbeat passed, then two, and, as though suddenly realizing her situation, Ren saw the flush slowly creeping up her neck. The girl ducked her head and tugged on the woman’s sleeve, mumbling something Ren couldn’t catch.

The woman nodded then grabbed the girl’s hand and led her away. With her gone, the crowd slowly dispersed and Ren heard snippets of conversations, wondering who the girl was—if she were a tourist or someone famous or rich, having an attendant like that. But Ren watched as the girl’s small back receded away and he couldn’t help but think how lonely it seemed.

He looked up at his mother, who was already tilting her head and smiling softly, as though she knew what he had in mind.

“Can I borrow some coins?” he asked.

It took him three tries to get the figurine he saw her trying to win—a female character of an old anime he used to watch, in long brown hair and a black suit. He was amazed they still had these. He was even more amazed that the girl had managed to spot it among all the other toys.

“I’m going to look for her for a bit, mom,” Ren said over his shoulder.

The woman had said something about her grandfather waiting for her. Had she gone home? Was she still here? What if she’d gone here by car? That was not impossible, if that woman really had been her attendant. _A rich young girl_ was the first thought that came to mind. This was the second floor of the game center building. Judging by how much time had passed, his only hope was that she was still somewhere near. 

Clutching the figurine in his hand, Ren quickly rushed down the stairs and checked the entire ground floor for her, but he found no one who looked like the girl or her attendant. Then he burst through the glass front doors. Sunlight blinded him momentarily before a pair of voices reached him from somewhere up ahead. He looked up, and there they were, the girl with the blond pigtails and her reluctant attendant, walking side-by-side about to the turn around the corner.

Ren ran up to them. “Hey!” he called. What was her name again? Ally? Annie? A—

“Ann!”

The girl stopped, then turned, and Ren found himself looking into a face that didn’t seem as foreign as he had thought. He could see some traces of Japanese ancestry there. Except for her eyes, which were brilliant blue. And she seemed to be his age.

Ren pulled himself to a stop, catching his breath.

“Do I know you?” the girl asked.

She looked wary. He didn’t blame her. He would think himself weird. But, what was he supposed to say anyway? _I saw you wanted this, so I got it. Here._

That sounded stupid even to him, but that was exactly what he did anyway.

He held out the figurine of the female anime character on his hand. “I saw you having trouble getting this, so…I got it...” _For you_. He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence. 

He stared at her as she continued to watch him carefully. Her gaze made him squirm, but Ren wasn’t backing down. Who was he anyway? Why did he go so far as to win the figurine with his own money for some girl he had never met? She had no reason to trust him. She had no reason to stop and listen to him. But he had glimpsed of a loneliness in her small back, and if this figurine could somehow ease even a fraction of it, then it was worth it.

The girl, Ann, finally looked at his hand, and Ren could see her eyes widening around the edges, her mouth opening slightly in a silent gasp.

“But that’s—”

“Take it,” he said.

Ann looked at him, then back at the figurine. She pursed her lips, and even though she looked like she would gladly trade her world for it, she held herself back, and said, “No, you won it. It’s yours.”

Ren furrowed his eyebrow. “No, I don’t want it.”

“Then why did you get it?”

“Because I wanted to give it to you.”

That made Ann pause, and Ren could see pink tinging her cheeks. Her attendant quietly said, “Take it, Ann-sama. It’s a gift.”

“A gift?” she echoed, as though she couldn’t quite believe it. She looked up and met Ren’s eyes and he saw confusion there. “But...I don’t know you, and I have nothing to give back or trade or—”

Ren grinned. “That’s all right,” he said. He grabbed Ann’s hand and put the figurine on her palm. “Just a thank you will be enough.” He let go of her and took a step back.

Her palm fisted around the figurine and when she finally let herself look at it, Ren saw how her eyes wavered, as though it was the most precious thing in the world, and a small smile slowly spread on her face.

“Thank you,” she said, and she looked at him again with a smile that had bloomed into a beautiful, ear-to-ear beam that made his heart skip a beat. Ren probably would have stood there, not knowing what to do or what to say, if he hadn’t heard his mother call for him.

He looked back over his shoulder. His mother was just outside the game center building and was waving him over. Talk about perfect timing. Maybe she had even witnessed the whole interaction. The thought made his cheeks burn.

He bid them goodbye, ducking his face and hiding away the embarrassment, before quickly making his back down toward his mother.

* * *

The first time he met her, he hadn’t realized it was her. How could he? They had been ten years old. She had seemed like a traveling foreigner. And that had been the only time he saw her. Not that he constantly thought of her, either, because after his father returned from his trip, it had been nonstop cram school or studying or other kinds of activities his father deemed “worthwhile” or “necessary”.

And yet now here he was, six years later, living his life in Tokyo as probation for something he didn’t do. He probably would have believed his father that he was a failure and a disappointment and be trapped in a spiral of self-hate if he hadn’t met the Phantom Thieves. But now he had friends who believed in him, people who supported him, and even a girlfriend who had always stayed by his side since the beginning.

“Ah! You’re so close!” Ann was shouting by his ear as the chocolate bar Ren had managed to catch with the claw dropped back into the pile near the chute.

An after-school date sometime in early autumn, Ann had asked him to stroll around Shibuya when she suddenly pulled him into the Gigolo Arcade. “I’ve always wanted to win one of these,” she had said, dragging him to one of the crane games that, of course, contained various kinds of chocolate bars. He should have guessed. “I’ve only ever gone with Shiho and none of us are good with these.”

“Not many are,” he had teased, and Ann had playfully hit his arm. Good thing he _was_ kind of good with it—or, at least, he hoped so. He’d rather not make such a claim and then failed. He would rather see the surprise and joy on her face when he finally managed to grab the chocolate bar and drop it into the chute.

But two tries in and still he failed. “Third time’s the charm,” he said.

Biting his lip, Ren set on maneuvering the claw machine with the stick and buttons. It’s not that he had played this game countless times before. He might have sneaked to the arcade to play some games when his father hadn’t been looking, but crane games, from which you would bring some kind of prize home—assuming you won something—was out of the question most of the time. He would rather not have his father asking what he had and how he’d gotten it and where he’d been. But he had played enough times to know how the game worked and how to win it.

Ren nudged the chocolate bar closer to the chute and, positioning the claw in such a way, he dropped the claw and grabbed the chocolate. Praying it wouldn’t drop halfway, he managed to bring the chocolate safely over to the chute and dropped it.

“ _Yay!_ ” Ann exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air as Ren bent down to grab the chocolate bar. “Thank you, Ren!” she said when he gave it to her. Her lips were stretched wide in a bright smile for a chocolate he knew they could find in any convenience stores, but then he wouldn’t have felt this sense of accomplishment of making her happy.

For a moment, Ren was reminded of the time when he first won the game and gave an anime figurine to a girl he didn’t know. This sense of accomplishment—it felt familiar.

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile of his own.

She met his gaze and before he could prepare himself, she had thrown her arms around him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Ren felt his back stiffening, his heart skipping a beat, and when he saw that radiant smile from up close, he couldn’t stop the butterflies from wreaking havoc in his stomach. She still had such an effect on him, even when they had been dating for over a month.

Ann extricated herself from him and, looking at the chocolate bar in her hand, her smile turned nostalgic. “You know, when I was a kid, I used to come to Japan in the summer,” she said. “I’d stay at my grandfather’s home. I didn’t have any friends, except Sayoko, our caretaker. This one time, we went to the game center, and I saw this crane game that had this anime character I really loved. I told you right? That bold, confident, sexy female thief?”

She had. Ren nodded, as bits and pieces of his own memory started to resurface, of the only time he had ever played an arcade game with his mother. Of playing the crane game for the first time in his life and struggling to get that figurine out because the girl had wanted it and she had seemed lonely and sad and he had wanted to ease her pain.

“The moment I saw it, I _knew_ I had to have it. I even spent a lot of money trying to get it but I always failed, and Sayoko had to pull me away because a lot of people were waiting to use the machine too.” She chuckled. “I was so upset because I _wanted_ to have that figurine! But then suddenly—”

“A boy came up and gave it to you?” Ren asked.

Ann looked at him in surprise. “How did you know?”

Ren stared at her, stunned at his own realization. “Because...I think I was that boy.”

It surprised him, as much as it surprised her, because even though he didn’t remember the person herself, winning the figurine and running around in search for her was still engraved deeply in his mind. And he _had_ wondered what had happened to her, or if he’d meet her again. He had wondered if he’d meddled too much or done something wrong. 

And to think the girl from back then was Ann.

“You’re kidding!” she said in astonishment.

Ren shook his head. “If you mean the figurine of the woman with brown hair and black suit then, no I don’t think I’m kidding,” he said. 

“Yeah, this figurine here,” she said, opening up her phone and scrolling through her gallery to a photo of a figurine of that same female anime character he had gotten from a crane game all those years ago, standing atop what seemed to be her desk. He nodded to confirm that yes, it was indeed him, and Ann squealed. “I was cleaning up my closet when I found this, and it brought back so many memories. This was one of the best gifts anyone has ever given me. I loved it so much! I thought I’d lost it. And to think _you_ were the boy from back then? Thank you, Ren!”

Ann was smiling and grinning like a child on Christmas day and it was then that Ren realized just how precious his “gift” had been to that girl. That maybe he hadn’t meddled too much, and a random act of kindness from a stranger really could do wonders in a person’s life.

Ren bent down and brushed his lips against her cheek. It was instinctive. He didn't even realized he was doing it until he _was_ doing it. 

He loved her. She might never understand how much he loved her. This kind and sweet girl, who had seen him for who he was even when the entire world was against him. He wanted to make her happy. He wanted to see her smile. He wanted to drive away all the lingering sadness and loneliness she had felt growing up. He had always wanted to since before he even knew her. 

When he pulled back, he noticed that her face was beet red, her fingers reaching up to touch where the kiss had lingered. He had actually made her speechless. 

Ren grinned. “Come on, we still have two more chances in this thing,” he said, nodding toward the crane game. “Let’s get more of those chocolates.”

**~ END ~**

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it :D Please leave a comment or two if you like. I would love to know what you think ^^ Thanks!


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